I like the imaginative take on the prompt, and the way you transform ornaments to chess pieces and hence to actual warriors, thereby gaining richness. As always, your descriptive writing is lovely. And, as you have a broadsword in your hands, I’m glad I’m not the bishop!
😉

I enjoyed the change in size in your piece: from what I envisioned as a huge army, transformed to chess pieces, then fairly large (or what I imagine as fairly large) vases on a mantel. Meanwhile, there is an underlayment of threat in the words army, scythed and broadsword

I thought of chess pieces too, those jardiniere do look a little like the massed ranks of pieces, or indeed, soldiers. Is this a flash back to a previous life, or a sidestep into a parallel world? Intriguing story Neil